Wickeds, we’re wending our way to the windup of our Wednesday waxings on games. One last question: What’s your online stress reliever? Are you a solitaire player? A multi-player gamer? Do you build virtual worlds? Play some sort of sport or dance your pants off? Give us some insight into your online gaming habits.
Julie: I find online games to be very, very relaxing. I like the match type games, so I’m a fan of Candy Crush and the other King games. Recently I discovered a game called Small Town that is both a mystery and matching games. I’ve also been known to have Free Cell bouts. My nieces and nephews tried to explain one of the world building games to me, but I didn’t love it. I do my own world building in my books.
Edith/Maddie: I’m sure I’ll be the outlier here. I played one video game once. I think it was called Myst? It was before I was divorced, so before 2002. I like crosswords on paper and solitaire with cards. I spend way, way too much time gazing at a screen. I don’t want to play a game on one, too.
Jessie: I am not a gaming enthusiast either, Edith. If left to my own devices, I just am not in the least bit interested. That said, since my family has been spending an unprecedented amount of time together we have started playing Civilization V as a family. While I doubt I will ever chose to play it on my own, it has been interesting to interact with my husband and sons in a completely different way. I also appreciate that it takes a very different set of skills than I am accustomed to employing and I do love to watch my brain stretch!
Liz: I haven’t actually played an online game in a long time! But I used to love Bejeweled…I was completely addicted to it. Before that, it was Solitaire. And there was a stretch where I was hooked on Farmville – that was a fun one.
Sherry: Liz! I forgot all about Bejeweled I use to play that too. I play solitaire but it’s on my old desktop not online. My daughter plays a word game and occasionally asks me for help. I’ve thought about downloading it but haven’t as yet. And my family plays a fun game called Heads Up.
Barb: I’m not much of an online gamer, but I am sadly addicted to solitaire. For me it’s like a cigarette break was for my mother, only slightly healthier. A way to stop, pause, gather, chill. Usually I play the classic Klondike, turn three. The point is it’s familiar and not challenging. However, lately I have also been into the games included with the scenes from Jacquie Lawson. It started with an advent calendar this December and now I have moved on to the Curio Collection tableau.
Readers: Do you have a favorite online game? Let us know in the comments. Clearly we need to branch out.
Yes, besides reading, online games are my daily relaxation. I play two different kinds of games. Wordscapes and WordSearch are word puzzles (crossword puzzles without clues). I only play the daily puzzle but there are also online tournaments where you compete against others, but I rarely play in these.
And then I play Fishdom and Gardenscapes (same company). You build different themed aquariums or gardens after earning coins by beating 3-match levels similar to Bejeweled. You also compete against other online players by completing each of these levels. Top-ranked players in each round earn rewards that can be used to build/augment your aquarium/garden. I can play these two games for hours and hours! Seriously addictive.
I keep getting ads for Gardenscapes and thinking about playing but haven’s so far.
Beware, Gardenscapes can be addictive. If you liked Farmville or Sims + added match-3 games component like Bejeweled/Candy Crush, then it might be for you.
I am pretty competitive, so I play waaaay too much against the others & in team competitions.
If I stopped playing these games, I could easier read 200+ books/year (still trying).
I believe you! That’s why I’ve hesitated.
I do Happy Color, which is color by number on my tablet. On my phone, I have sudoku, Quizzland, and a US and a world Geography trivia game, plus Duolingo, which I’m using to learn Spanish and Italian.
Learning Spanish and Italian. Now I feel like a slacker.
I play Word Wiz (word game) and TriPeaks (solitare game)
Hmm Word Wiz. I think I may need to look into it.
Hey Liz, I’m a former FarmVille addict too having played it on a clunky computer then on my iPad. I even had a separate FB account so there was no danger of bugging friends and family with it 😂. But after I discovered cozy mysteries not quite four years ago, the interest in games kind of went away. There are too many series I want to catch up on haha. Every so often I’ll play a little solitaire on my phone if I’m waiting somewhere that’s impossible for reading concentration.
And, believe me, your friends appreciated that separate Facebook account. (And we appreciate you reading cozy mysteries.)
No games on the pc I use for writing and Facebook is enough of an addiction on my iPad. I’d rather play with cards or jigsaw puzzle pieces—things I can touch.
I felt that way about my scrapbooking for a long time. Until all the photos and the whole industry went digital.
online sudoku: it beeps when I enter something twice in one row and has a different sound for when I’ve completed a row correctly.
I like the idea of audio encouragement. I always play with the sound turned off so no one knows I’m goofng around.
Edith, I also played MYST on my PC! It was either 2000 or 2001. I love those type of puzzle games. I have not found anything like this since.
I play Words With Friends but I’m not very good. I mostly play with people I know. I have have a Dice game that I play with my cousin – we play Farkle and Yahtzee. I like match 3 games also and play Cookie Jam and Cake Swap. I like to color so I have a coloring app — Tap Color — on my iPad. Liz, I was also hooked on FarmVille back in the day.
We need to start a Farmville reunion group.
Another former Myst player here. And Legend of Zelda. I loved Zelda. I had a console version and one for my old Nintendo DS handheld. I also liked playing the various Mario games on the handheld (which my daughter gave away as a Christmas present to her ex-boyfriend, but, whatever).
I play a version on Maj Johnng on my laptop that is probably not at all like the real game – it’s just matching the tiles. I have played WordScapes, but I have to be careful on that one. If I can’t figure out the words I get frustrated and it has the exact opposite effect of relaxation. Also a game called Word Swipe, kind of like a word-hunt. And I do jigsaw puzzles on my iPad.
I totally get what you mean about the opposite of relaxation. That’s why my father never played golf.
The only game I play on line, which isn’t often at all, is Spider which is like the card game Solitaire.
2clowns at arkansas dot net
My mother-in-law was a big player of spider solitaire, though with cards.
Big gamer here. 🙂 Maybe it’s because I grew up in the ’70s and was a teenager when the video game revolution began with Pong and then Atari, but I’ve been into computer games since they started. Huge fan of The Sims. I still play that frequently. And my son grew up loving Pokemon and Nintendo games so we’d play that together. I still get the new Pokemon games when they come out (my son got me my own Switch for Christmas last year so we can play together. He’s in college now, studying video game design as a matter of fact). And now with my iPad, I’ve tried so many different ones I’ve lost count. I’m a former Farmville/Candy Crush/Bejeweled junky. Now I only have a couple that I play regularly, because they are such a distraction from writing. My favorite at the moment is State of Survival, a zombie game, and Lemmings, which has made a come back in a new iPad version.
The Sims is another one of those things where I felt if I fell in I might never climb out.
That’s true. It can get addicting. 😁
Growing up I played a lot of video games on consoles or at the arcade. As for online game playing, I’d play games like Legend of The Red Dragon back in the days of BBS systems (right before the actual Internet took over everything). Nowadays I might play a game on a couple of sites but nothing that is making my life complete or anything.
It is more like a palate cleanser while spending a lot of time on the Internet and the game gives me a break from the endless looking up of stuff as I’m writing an article or looking for articles to read etc.
Otherwise, I don’t play a lot of games of any kind anymore.
Palate cleanser! That’s exactly how I would describe it. I’ll often play a quick game when switching from one task to another.
I love to play back in the day FarmVille and also The Oregon Trail I got to Oregon 3 times 😊 but now I just play on my tablet Pearls Peril and Homicide Squad . Have a great and safe day wicked authors.🥰
Thank you, Kerry. Now I am wondering about Homicide Squad.
Love Words With Friends and play daily with 7 or 8 friends who I’ve known between 8 years to over 50 years. it has a messaging component and I like it to keep in touch with my “wordie ” friends
I think the messaging component is one of the reasons Words with Friends is so addictive.
I was an arcade gamer at one time, Centipedes, Pac Man, etc. There is one game I have played since my DOS days and that’s Sherlock. It’s a logic tile game similar to those word puzzles that have a set number of people, symbols, houses, numbers, etc. Grouped tiles at the bottom of the screen tell you that certain items do or don’t go together. Grouped tiles to the right of the screen tell you that some items must be adjacent (or not) and that some tiles are sandwiched between the others. I was never good at the word versions of these and math tests are often set up just like them. When I took my GRE (Graduate Record Exam), it was full of word-based math problems. For every one of those, I drew tiles in the margins of the test and created my own visual clues. My math scores on that exam were more than 100 points higher than any standardized math test before! I still play it daily over morning coffee and it gives me an idea of whether my brain is engaged and ready to go. My goal is to solve each puzzle within 10 minutes or less. Most of the time, I’m able to do that.
Wow. Now you have me wanting to play Sherlock.
I also did MYST back in the day, and some video game where Poirot wandered around a hotel looking for clues! The closest I get to online games these days is sometimes watching my husband play Mah Jong on the Roku and watching old game shows, like Password!
When my son was a kid all the boys used to watch one boy playing a video game and I thought it was an odd past-time. But I totally get watching your husband play mah-jong.
Like Barb, I’m addicted to Klondike solitaire. I also like simple jigsaw puzzles (too hard to see and manipulate large numbers of pieces – and I do 1000 piece ones on my card table), mah jong, and pyramid solitaire. But these are just for a break. Most of my spare time is spend reading cozies! Lots more fun.
Yes, exactly, for a break.
I play Words with Friends (and lose regularly) and Trivia Crack (hold my own). I used to love Hanging with Friends (hangman), but they took that game down. I miss it so much.
I do play some solitaire online while watching TV, so that’s about it.
I play while watching TV, too. Particularly if it’s not a show I’m invested in.
I just recently purchased an iPad and am doing well to download ebooks onto it (still having trouble doing that!). So, no games for me, but I am learning Spanish for free with Duolingo and have enjoyed stretching my mind.
More language learning! People are using their time so constructively. Feeling like a slacker.
I play Spider Solitaire and Free Cell on my computer most every day. It’s great to be retired. When I was working, I felt like I was wasting time so only played on weekends. Now I don’t care.
It is great to be retired.
I was never much of a game person, cards or otherwise, but I loved Bejeweled and miss it. I bought it, installed on a computer which later crashed. After upgrading it to Windows 10, the game was no where to be found and I couldn’t find the disk, either. Boo hoo! I play the Microsoft Games (which includes card games, mah jong, puzzles, and more) in Windows 10 now. I, too, have taken up reading e-books, though I prefer a virtual book. Just realized this weekend my house is full of books I can’t donate, so need to stop ordering them (I’ve got four coming soon. Yikes!) And, I agree, it is wonderful to be retired.
My addiction is Design home ….you get to be an interior designer. Love it
I do sudoku and occasionally solitaire. I do the hard version of sudoku but lets you make 3 mistakes in a game before you have to start your winning streak again. I have to confess that I made 2 stupid mistakes in a minute and then a third shortly after last night. I hit the same wrong number twice knowing it was wrong. I decided I didn’t want to chance making a 4th and messing up my streak so I cheated and used coordinate paper to recreate and solve on paper before I put it in the game. No one on earth but me (and now you know) but somehow I didn’t want to break that winning streak. I did work until I knew I’d solved it so I guess other than changing my means of solving it’s not cheating since I wasn’t competing with anyone. My longest streak was 315 games (did the grid trick a few times to keep that one up) I’m back at 212 now. I’ll work an hour on the paper grid to make sure I get it right. I know it’s stupid by my stubborn competitive gene kicks in. I wouldn’t do it if I was competing against someone of course.
Oh my gosh, I love your comment Diana. I never thought to do the hard copy to help myself. Smart woman! I realized (and almost wrote it on my last comment), that I have gotten competitive in the Microsoft Solitaire tournament. I really love when I’m #1 out of over 500,000 people (tee hee).